Archive for September, 2012

Whale Fire, a four-piece indie rock/pop group from Little Rock, are set to release their 7″ titled Dream of Me / The Fabric on September 29th. After hearing their single “Wild-Eyed Mistake” (listen below) from their forthcoming album coming in October/early November, I am quite excited to see what else they are capable of. Whale Fire splits lead vocals/guitar duties between Clay Grubbs and John Steel while Matthew Steel handles the harmonies/bass, and Will Vick takes care of the drums/percussion.

Referring to their upcoming material in John’s own words, “We recently finished recording material for a 7″ and a full length album with our good friend Michael Stephens mostly between his spare bedroom and our practice space. The process ended up taking a little longer than we thought it would after the laptop we were using broke and it hit another snag when Michael had to move to Shreveport, LA, but we are finished now and happy with the results.”

Pick up their single Wild-Eyed Mistake for free on their bandcamp page now and check out their website for tour dates and more information.

New Frank Ocean is always a treat and last night’s mysterious new “Blue Whale” is no different. This time, however, Ocean trades his falsetto and melodies for a couple of chilled-out rap verses. We’ve already heard him spit on “Oldie” and “She” with the rest of the Odd Future goons, but “Blue Whale” (which seems to be an old demo produced by Midi Mafia) is the most continuous and solid rap effort so far from the Def Jam singer. Check out the song on Ocean’s Tumblr below.

As a part of the BBC Orchestra Presents… series, the xx has performed live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in a seaside resort of Bridlington in East Yorkshire, England. In the concert, the xx performed arrangements of songs from xx and Coexist. You can watch the performance below or listen to the archived broadcast on BBC here. The xx recently released their sophomore album Coexist and are on tour promoting the new album. Check out tour dates below the video.

Kelsie Brown, a Washington-based solo artist has put out her fourth and final release, “Empty Staircases”, under the new moniker, Red Alder. Red Alder produces ambient atmospheric music, with an influence from classical music which can be definitely heard while listening to her songs. The mood created from her music is unique as you seem to become emotionally gauged with it, as it draws you in.

As she says in her own words, “I put my soul into this album and I am so proud of what I have created and I can only hope that others appreciate it as well.” Fans of Ricky Eat Acid will definitely enjoy this release as it creates the same atmospheric vibes. You can listen to the new release below and download her entire discography on a “Name Your Price Basis” from her Bandcamp page.

After a long anticipated wait, Ricky Eat Acidand Arrangehave released a collaboration titled Sketches. Recorded during the fall and winter of 2011, the release was initially intended to be a full album, but the duo were set back by technology failure, thus putting the project on hold. They then decided to release the four songs that they did finish as an album of “sketches”, rather than not at all.

The roles they each played in the collaboration explained in Sam’s own words, “Malcom recorded the vocals for these songs, as well as a lot of the instruments and synths, while I handled the production aspect mostly, contributing guitars, (some) pianos, pads, bass, (some) synths and most of the drums. We shared a lot of the mixing duties as well. The cover art is also by me, and is composed of four photos I’ve taken (and subsequently re-printed and scanned again to achieve a textured effect.)” You can see a lot more on Ray’s tumblr.

Their distinct styles seamlessly work together to a produce an excellent experimental ambient collection of four songs. Sketches is available both at Ricky Eat Acid’s Bandcamp and Arrange’s on a name your price basis.

Sound Remedy is an electronic producer from Los Angeles, California, who just started producing music 2 years ago. Since then, he’s put together great remixes for Neil Young, Band of Horses, and Nirvana. A couple of days ago, Sound Remedy released a new track remixing Noosa, a rather unknown (but brilliant!) singer who sounds a bit like Lana Del Rey. Sound Remedy’s production builds up to a sudden drop, which you can listen to below. Sound Remedy releases all of his tracks for free on Soundcloud.

We’ve had a bit of a cruel summer waiting for the G.O.O.D. Music crew to finish up their ultra-hyped collaboration. Today, we get a brand new glimpse of the album with the second single to Cruel Summer, due out, ironically, this fall (September 16th to be exact). Kanye West teams up with Big Sean and Jay-Z to jump on some banging Hit Boy production, giving us yet another posse cut from the talented crew. If you enjoyed “Mercy” like most people did considering it already went platinum, you’ll love “Clique”, which pretty much falls in the exact same alley. The three rhymers drop their sixteens, Yeezy and Sean Don take care of the hook, and “N–gas in Paris” producer Hit Boy returns to his familiar position behind the boards for the Kanye-led clique. Oh gawd!

Avicii, one of the biggest house producers from Sweden, releases a bundle of official remixes of his popular hit song “Silhouettes”. One remix stands out from all of the other remixes: the Syn Cole Creamfields mix. This is the first I’ve ever heard about this electronic group or single person and they seem to have no other released tracks on Beatport, putting me under the impression that they’ve just started out. Nevertheless, their remix to “Silhouettes” is incredible. Avicii’s original song is a laid-back smooth house song, but Syn Cole Creamfields absolutely destroy the track by turning it into a fast paced electro that will surely become a live track for Avicii’s performances. I’m absolutely loving this track, so grab the download below and enjoy!

Rising New York hip-hop artist Azealia Banks has just released the music video for “1991”. The 1991 EP was released earlier this year and has received overall good reviews for the singles “212” and “Liquorice”. Justin Mitchell, who has previously worked with KiD CuDiand Death Cab for Cutie, directed the music video that you can view below. In the music video, you can see Azealia Banks simply being Azealia Banks posing and dancing in this simplistic music video. Her debut album, Broke With Expensive Taste, has again been delayed to a further release date. So far the expected release date is February 12, 2013, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it was delayed again.

Chicago-based independent hip-hop record label, Closed Sessions, has just dropped the full mixtape for Closed Sessions, Vol. 2. They have been dropping singles for the last couple months and Vol. 2 features classic hip-hop artists such as Blu and Raekwon and also many rising talents such as Freddie Gibbs, Action Bronson and Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire. You can also listen and download Vol. 1, which was released 2010. Check out a series of behind-the-scenes videos for the making of Closed Sessions, Vol. 2 here. Download or listen to the mixtape on Soundcloud below. You can also check out a trailer for Vol. 2 below.